mszcz

Couple of years ago I worked as a full stack web dev for a electronics distributor.

At that time we had a couple of DB problems, it would get overwhelmed, shit itself and our page would show an error. I found some time and, instead of fixing the error (duh ;P), I downloaded around 20-30 funny cat gifs, assigned each a funny caption and modified the error page so that each would show randomly.

Next time the DB shit itself, the error page showed up and the cats wrought refresh chaos upon Apache but it took it in stride since the error page was mostly static.

Everyone was delighted but after around 15 minutes I got a call from sales asking my to take the cats down. „It’s not very businessy, take it down!”. „The site is down either way, would you rather our clients stare at a dry message or something funny?”. „Dry message! Take it down”. „No” and I hung up. So proud of myself that I stood up to them. I think the cats are still up to this day ;)

The point of this story is that http.cat made me think of those cat pages, thanks!

Isn’t it (ChatControl) also „marketed” as „safe and secure”? If they (politicians) don’t have their comms backdoored and still get their data stolen, then why would I trust them to secure (read „safely snoop on”) mine or even know what they’re talking about?

Same here. I recently started thinking about upgrading my Synology NAS to something newer they offered. When I read about the hard drive restrictions I thought no-one would be _that_ stupid. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be 100% true. I mean, what the fuck?

So, I started to look around and landed on Ugreen. They offered a NAS with more RAM (and the ability to upgrade), better connectivity (2.5GbE + 10 GbE), faster CPU, ability to install custom OSes (like TrueNAS), the OS resides on a separate, user-replaceable M.2 NVMe drive. All that for less money. Plus, since I control the OS, there's no way they can push some garbage it's-for-your-own-good-wink-wink update down my throat.

Bought it, didn't even start their OS and put TrueNAS Scale on it and I've never been happier. The caveat here is that I use my NAS as a NAS - no apps, no docker, no photos app. All that is on a separate box in the rack.

For me to ever trust Synology again I'd have to see some punitive action towards the idiots there that thought that whole HDD restrictions mess was a good idea. Even then, now that I've had a look around what else is available, I'm pretty sure I'll stay clear for a couple of years.

When I read what you wrote I immediately thought of "(...) HAL was told to lie... by people who find it easy to lie. HAL doesn't know how, so he couldn't function. He became paranoid. (...)".

Great point. I think that Blindsight by Peter Watts explores the concept of alien intelligence without consciousness.

However true that might be, I’d rather try to avoid wrestling with software for my data. If that’s really the case then even if it’s free I’m pretty sure you’re not getting your money’s worth.

Yeah, I've never found XML to be easy to edit/bulk edit/edit by hand. I suppose there are tools that would allow me to do that but since I would use them sporadically, I'd need to re-learn them every use. At the same ^D/^KD in Sublime works just fine.

Exactly. I can try out stupid stuff, but because it's all text files and no magic, reverting back is as easy as it gets.

I tried it years ago but finally settled on HLedger. Like GnuCash, I own and control my data, but with HLedger I have an ability to go in and correct or change something (and not in a "accounting-appropriate" way) in bulk just by editing it in Sublime Text. Then again, my use case is pretty basic and not mission critical so YMMV.

Onyx makes a HDMI "25 eInk display [0]. It's pricey.

[0] https://onyxboox.com/boox_mirapro

edit: "25, not "27

This looks awesome. I’ve been wondering if it would be practical/feasible to create something similar but portable, self-contained for quieter, „local” sounds, like for instance locating a termite-like bug(s?) that’s been terrorizing my sanity for years now hiding in wooden beams.

I'm using "Easy Move+Resize". Works great.

Had the same feeling. This had all the hallmarks of vaporware for me - something was introduced in a TED talk (that's a personal turn off). No clear definition or description. Then the fashion show, and for what? Building "buzz"? About what? Then I started hearing some chatter about it but still no info on what it is. I felt like someone wanted me to get excited about it but provided no value whatsoever.

Now, this thing's introduced and what? The laser interface seems clunky, no idea how it holds up on a bright day outside. Most of the interactions are done by voice which, at least for me, have never been satisfactory on way more powerful and polished devices. Then there's the privacy - I'm assuming that for this thing to work I need to give it access to everything. How long has this company been operating and battle testing its security? How good or bad its track record is with regard to selling my data? And yes, I know that my smartphone already knows everything about me. But those things are built by either Apple or Google which at least have some track record and I know what I can expect from them, more or less.

I still don't understand what am I getting here? What's the revolutionary, exciting thing? The AI? The lasers? The voice interface? The always-on-your-person?

If I remove the lasers, add a screen and a OpenAI/whateverLLM interface & integration I get what? An Apple Watch (or Google or whatever) that's 1-2 years out probably.

What's nice however that they're trying things. The laser thing does seem cool.

edit: Commas, sentence structure.

Hey, those evaluations won't evaluate themselves you know! That's important work!

Oh...

Does anyone know what charting library they're using?

Just because it can’t scale, doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong.

That. I'm so tired of this excuse being used which basically amounts to complaining that you wouldn't been able to get so big and fat if you didn't break the rules.

Same here. I'm really surprised that after Pebble's implosion nothing appeared to fill the void. I could've bet real money that within a couple of years we're going to see at least a couple of products at least close to what the Pebble was.

If you buy your phone from a carrier. If you buy directly from a vendor I don't see how they (carriers) would be able to inject it. Radio firmware however is, as I understand it, a completely different thing...

Did you mean Mgła?

Ha! I asked Bard a couple of nights ago about some TV series (circa 2021) trivia - "does xxx die in season xxx of show xxx?". The answer looked suspicious so I clicked "view alternative answers" or something. I only read the beginnings which were "yes, ...", "no, ..." and "yes, ...". Really satisfied my curiosity right there...

That always astounds me - someone expecting me to pay them for something right after I was lied to by them (the ad). Who do those ads target?

it depends on the threat model. If you're Finland

Yes, I agree, in cases like this, sure. In general however I think that compulsory training is more wasteful than usual.

Of course, you could always argue that that's what allies are for. But the problem with allies is that they don't always come through when and how you want them to.

Being Polish that rings true. Also, if every ally in an alliance thinks that…

I've always thought of those compulsory military training schemes as a little silly.

You have a bunch of unmotivated people that don't want to be there. You have to house them, feed them, train them for what, 3, 6, 12 months? Seems like a lot of money. How long will that training last for? How soon will you need retraining to be even considered marginally useful? Isn't it better to spend that money on professional soldiers?

Yeah, I hate that. It's usually easy to spot, so I click "allow" on the JS notification and then block the real one when it pops up.

That's interesting. I have around 10-15 of those IKEA 365 glass containers with plastic lids and have never had them chip. I stick them in the dishwasher all the time.

I wouldn't take it even if they payed me. In a country that does the things it does, even if you could stomach living there, I'm sure if you built something worthwhile there it would certainly be taken from you.

It's not EU's loathsome meddling, it's Apple's loathsome insistince on using a proprietary cable for years and years to make an extra buck that has your knickers in a twist now.

Maybe it's one of those ChatGPT designed and operated businesses everyone's been dreaming about recently? ;)

I can't seem to find the right one. Care to post the link?